Crafty Burglar Targets Jackson Heights Bodegas, Pizzeria: NYPD

JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS -- Police are searching for a crafty serial thief who went to great lengths - once even crashing through a plasterboard wall - to break into a Jackson Heights restaurant and bodegas.

The burglar first snuck into a Super Bazaar bodega on 31st Avenue near 75th Street by pushing in an air conditioning unit and sliding in after it at about 2:30 a.m. on July 12, cops said.

Once inside, he stole $2,400 in cash, $1,000 in rolled coins and an array of cigarettes, prepaid phone cards, and lottery tickets, authorities said.

The man struck again on July 25 just before 4 a.m., this time sneaking into Growing Farm about a mile away near 37th Avenue and 76th Street, police said.

Cops said he stole $550 in cash from the bodega before breaking through a plasterboard wall to get into Due Fratelli, a neighboring pizza joint.

He made off with $8,000 and a $2,600 Samsung laptop from the eatery.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

Lead photo via NYPD